The U.S. Navy has moved the guided-missile destroyer USS Cole and
other ships to the eastern Mediterranean Sea off Lebanon, Pentagon
officials said Thursday.

The deployment comes amid a political standoff over Lebanon's presidency,
but the Navy would not say whether the events are linked.

"It's a group of ships that will operate in the vicinity for
a while and as the ships in our Navy do, the presence is important,"
Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said
Thursday.

"It isn't meant to send any stronger signal than that,"
he said. "But it does signal that we're engaged and we are going
to be in the vicinity, and that's a very important part of the world."

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The Cole was badly damaged by an al Qaeda bombing during a port call
in Yemen in 2000, killing 17 sailors. It returned to service in 2002.

The destroyer and two support ships are close to Lebanon but out
of visual range of the coast, Pentagon officials said. Another six
vessels, led by the amphibious assault ship USS Nassau, are close
to Italy and steaming toward the other three, the officials said.

Mullen would not say whether the deployment has anything to do with
the upcoming Lebanese parliamentary vote on a new president, which
was postponed for a 15th time earlier this week. But he said the vote
was "important," and Washington was waiting for it to take
place.